The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has issued a memo instructing immigration enforcement to detain people with legal refugee status so that they can be “re-vetted,” prompting criticism from humanitarian organizations, including World Relief.
The memo said that refugees must surrender themselves into federal custody for “inspection and examination” one year after their admission into the United States, according to Reuters.
“This detain-and-inspect requirement ensures that refugees are re-vetted after one year, aligns post-admission vetting with that applied to other applicants for admission, and promotes public safety,” DHS said in the memo.
The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on immigration, both legal and illegal. Last year, the Trump administration set the lowest cap on refugees since the refugee program was established in its current form in 1980.
Current U.S. immigration law requires legally recognized refugees to apply for permanent status one year after entering the country. Now the Trump administration is instructing immigration officers to detain refugees for the duration of the re-inspection process.
Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, called the directive “a reckless reversal of long-standing policy” and said it “breaks faith with people the United States lawfully admitted and promised protection.”
Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said, “This unprecedented policy weaponizes a routine administrative milestone as a pretext for detention.”
“These are families the United States government already screened more rigorously than any other category of immigrant. Only after years of background checks, biometric screenings, and in-person interviews were they invited to rebuild their lives here,” Vignarajah continued. “To now subject them to arrest and open-ended detention is a stunning betrayal of both our legal commitments and our moral compass.”
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“This policy is a transparent effort to detain and potentially deport thousands of people who are legally present in this country, people the U.S. government itself welcomed after years of extreme vetting,” said Beth Oppenheim, CEO of HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). “They were promised safety and the chance to rebuild their lives. Instead, DHS is now threatening them with arrest and indefinite detention.”
